Coalfields Tight In Grip Of Strike; No Indication Of Break In Deadlock

600 Miners Walked Out Tuesday Morning, Demanding Better Wages and Working Conditions, Brickyard Men Also Strike. Police on Watch.

At 5:30 o'clock this (Thursday) afternoon there was no sign of a break in the strike deadlock which has held industrial Estevan and the Coalfields locked tight in its grip since midnight on Monday.
At that hour the coal operators of the firld were in session, considering the situation from all angles, but had no statement to make other than to repeat their refusal to meet the executive of the Mine Workers' Union because of its "Red" connection.
At union headquarters it was announced by Martin J. Forkin, acting secreatary of the local branch that Jas. Sloan, the Dominion president, left early this morning for Calgary to make prearations for a convention of the union to be held in that city commencing September 15. No date was set for Sloan's return.
It appears as if "an irresistable force has met an immovable object."

Police Reinforced Rumours of threats of violence ranging all the way from bodily harm to gunpowder plots charge an atmposphere of suppressed excitement which prevails throughout the field. Against the possibility of disturbance the local detachment of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police has been strengthened considerably, but as yet has received no call to action. Strong lights burn above each of the mines at night, and special watchmen are on the job at several camps.
It is the first strike in the history of the Coalfields, and with the rapid approach of hte heavy shipping season, the general walkout has precipated a very grave situation.
At the call of the executive committee of the recently organized branch of the Mine Workers' Union of Canada, 600 miners failed to go to work Tuesday. More than 40 men walked out at International Clay Products Monday and 250 strikers Tuesday morning invaded the plant to enforce idleness among half a dozen employees who had returned to their jobs. OUt at the railway construction camp, five miles west of town, where 200 men are engaged, a walkout has been rumored since Tuesday.

Negotiations Fail Thos. M. Molloy, deputy minister of labor for the province, has advised the union executive to apply for a board of conillation under the Dominion Inustrial Disputes Act. Mr. Molloy was sent to Estevan at the week-end by the provincial government to investigate the situation. He failed in his efforts to bring the operators and union commitee together, after suggesting several different forms of arbitration. Returning to Regina he was informed on Monday that a strike had been called for Tuesday morning. He immediately wired Sloan, Dominion president of the Miners' Union, strongly urging him to "advise the men to ovserve the law in such matters" and to seek a board of conilliation. He also urged that the men remain at work pending an investigation.
Sloan turned down the suggestion, after consultation with his executive. Tuesday night he said, commenting on Mr. Molloy's telegram: "We are not breaking any laws, we have the right to strike. As for a board of conillation, our fight is right here with the oeprators and here we stay. That is the course the executive commitees have decided upon."

Ottawa Statement Further in this connection was a Canadian Press dispatch from Ottawa as follows:

Ottawa, Sept. 8 - Until striking miners in the Estevan, Sask. district return to work the Industrial Disputes Act cannot be invoked to deal with the situation, department of labor officials explained here.
The statute empowers the minister of labor to set up a board of conillation to deal with disputes between employers and employees, but does not cover a situation where a strike has already been precipated.
In many cases, however, employees on strike have been induced to return to work pending a decision by a board of concillation which can then be set up.

Grievous victimization of the miners and the "worst working conditions in Canada" are alleged by the union executive, who claim to have in their possession information on which grave charges could be laid against the coal operators of the field. This information they say, may be placed before the public unless consideration is given the proposals they ahve prepared for improvment of the working conditions.

Calls Conferences In letters signed by Sloan and addressed to all the operators two conferences have been called "for the purpose of reaching an agreement on hours, contract and day wage rates, and housing and working conditions." The first of these conferences was announced for last Thursday night in the Town Hall auditorium, but there was no turnout of the operators, each of whom replied to Sloan after this manner: "We will not meet you or any representative of an organization such as yours which, by your own statement boasts a direct connection with the 'entire Workers' Unity League and the Red Inernationale of Soviet Russia.' We have at any and all times been willing to meet the employees of our company to discuss any grievances or complaints. This policy we will continue to follow and welcome discussing matters of mutual interest."
Strike Warning When the first conference failed, Sloan sent a second letter to each of the operators, reading as follows:

"Dear Sir: At the joint conference which was held in the Town Hall at Estevan on Sept. 3, at which your compnay failed to be represented for various reasons of your own which you stated in your letters, I have been instructed by the executive committee of mines who represent all the miners in this district to inform you that another conference will be held in the Town Hall on Sept. 7, for the purpose of reaching an agreement covering all the mines in this district. If your company fails to be represented at this conference on the abov ementioned date, I have been further instructed to inform you that your employees will cease work on Tuesday morning, Sept. 8.
"So I would urge that your company be represented at this conferrence and if possible avoid a stoppage of work for all concerned."

Strike Declared This second letter brought no reply and there was no attendance of operators at the conference. Sloan and his executive committee remained in session for more than four hours. Emerging at midnight, he announced that a general strike, affecting all the mines of the field, would take place the following morning.
Tuesday morning came and all the mines were stilled with the exception of the Truax-Traer Coal Co., Ltd., where 50 men returned to work. Asked for an explanation of this in view of the fact that the union had ordered a 100% walkout, Sloan stated that the Truax-Traer men were engaged only in stripping coal and laying tracks. If the company attempted to load or ship coal, he said, the men would be quickly forced from their jobs. Temporarily, however, they would be unmolested.

Operators Talk In a statement issued to the press Tuesday evening, the Saskatchewan Coal Operators' assocation, representing over 90 percent of the total output of the field, reiterated their willingness to meet the miners for discussion of the alleged grievances. They would agree, the statement said, to confer with the employees of their own mines or with a comittee representing all the employees of the field. They would also be willing to have the alleged grievances heard before any imartial tribunal, but they repeated their original attitude of refusing to meet Sloan or "any other representative of an organization such as his, that by his own statement boasts connection with the entire Workers' Unity League and the Red Internationale of Soviet Russia."

No Complaints Made The statement of the operators further set forth that no complaints had been made to them bytheir employees, and that the requests of a number of their members for copies of the miners demands had been refusted by the union executive. Discussing wage rates, the statement went on to claim that it was unfair to draw comparisons between the wages paid in the Souris coal fields and those paid in the Alberta fields. The selling price of lignite coal at the mine was less than half that of ALberta coal at the mine.
The same differences existed in the market selling price, and the value of a product on the market directly goverened the price that could be paid for its production.

Demand for Labor Loss Due to economic conditions existing during the past two years, the statement of the operators continued, the demand for labor had been going steadily downhill. Work in the mines here was only a seasonal occupation, less than 25 percent of the men whose names appeared on the payroll being employed steadily the year around. Rather than confine the payroll to a few full-time miners, the operators had made a practice of distributing work among the many men who gathered in or near their camps, ensuring a "fair living" to all. One of the operators had produced his payroll over the years 1926-1930 to show that the average net earnings of his men provided what was described as a "very fair living" the year around, despite the slack summer seasons, when only two or three half-days of work each week were available.
In conclusion the operators' statement declared that the decrease of the past year or so in the wages paid "was not nearly in proportion to the decrease in the price received for coal." and when the increased purchasing power of the dollar was considereed, the wages were at a "very fair standard."
A copy of the wage and working condition proposals drawn up by the union executive could not be secured from Sloan by the press. They would only be released for publication, he said, after they had been submitted to the coal operators.
In reply to the offer of the operators to meet a committee of all the employees of the field, Sloan stated that the only way a conference could be held was with the union. "The men have chosen me for their general," he observed.

Financial Aid Asked about the possible duration of the strike, Sloan said, "We are making preparations for a long seige, if it is necessary." He intimated that if the strikers were out of work long enough to place them in want, financial assistance would be forthcoming from the affilliated organizations of the Miners' Union, the Workers' Unity Leage and the Red Internationale of Labor Unions. In his firist public appearance in Estevan at a meeting in the Town Hall on August 26, Sloan instanced as a example of the support the union members might expect to receive, the British mine strike of 1926, when Soviet miners sent $5,000,000 to feed the starving families of their British fellow-workers while the strike lasted.

Premier's Statement "The government has been in touch with the situation in the Estevan and Souris coal fields and the industrial dispute existing there," said an official statement issued Tuesday morning by Premier J.T.M. Anderson. "Through the department of labor efforts were made to bring the conflicting interests together. The jurisdiction of the province in settling industrial disputes was restricted by legislation passed in Saskatchewan in 1926, whereby it was enacted that the Dominion Industrial Disputes Investigation act should apply to every industrial dispute of the nature defined in the Dominion act.
"We are hopeful that the situation will not prove serious in that we are advised that the operators are prepared to consider concessions and we believe the great body of the men employed in the mines will be reasonable in their attitude."

Demand Higher Pay After working during the spring and summer for 30 cents and hour, 40 employees of International Clay Products Monday morning faced the manager of the plant, Geo. A. Calvert, with a demand for the return of their old wage of 35 cents an hour. When he refused to accede immediately, they walked out, leaving the fires in a kiln filled with $5,000 brick to die behind them. Tuesday morning several men returned to the plant to keep the fires burning, and were seen by strikers pickted on the surrounding hills. About 11 o'clock a body of 250 strikers, the brickyard employees having ben reinforced by about 200 from the coal fields, descended on the plant and ordered the seven men to cease work. One of them, who was carrying drinking water, had his two pails seized from his hands and the water spilled on the ground. When Calvert ordered the strikers off the premises, they refused to move unless the seven men went with them, andthey finally got their way.

Enrolled in the Union The brickyard strikers are enrolled in the Lumber and Agricultural Workers' Industrial union, as are also many of the construction gang which is rushing to completion a railway line on the Neptune branch of the C.P.R. to replace the big trestle which was destroyed two weeks ago Wednesday night by the tornado. It was rumored that the construction gang would also strike for higher wages, but as yet they have not done so. Their union has been headed by J. Loughrin.
About 100 unemployed have been signed up here in the National Unemployed Workers' association, their organization being effected by Martin J. Forkin, of Winnipeg, who is also acting secretary of the local Mine Workers' union. All unions are connected with the Workers' Unity Leage of Canada and the Red Internationale of Labor unions, it is stated by their executives.